Anyone that’s known me for any amount of time knows that I’m a huge advocate of access to emergency services within the enterprise or commercial workspace, and a main driver behind Kari’s Law.
Quite often, when a problem exists that we don’t understand, wrong solutions are selected, as the decision is based on emotional response and misunderstandings. Enterprise public safety services are a perfect example of this issue.
Enterprise E911 can be summarized in a simple statement:
“Emergency Services are based on the caller ID presented with the call, and the billing address that is associated with that number.”
The workflow are simple, and no different than when I call United Airlines; where I am greeted by name by their AI based voice response system. According to my past history, I’m offered a choice of options presented to me in the most logical order, according to what the system knows about me this instant, which happens to be and my trip to Nashville on Friday. If I called last week, it would have asked me about my trip to Toronto. There really is no great magic here; These are simply forms of AI logic, interacting with me in an environments that is contained, predictable, and has a definitive list service of potential outcomes.
So how does this apply to public safety? Quite simply, as far as the enterprise is concerned today?, It really doesn’t. But what does apply to the enterprise is the management of call presentation, as well as providing detailed situational awareness to internal management and staff that can now formulate, as well as coordinate an effective response plan, and THEN make that data available in a open interface to Public Safety if they want it,
In the past, it’s been common practice to place individual enterprise telephone numbers into the 911 location database, while including information such as cubicle 2C–231 so that Public Safety knows exactly where I am in the building. But when you step back and look at the solution, what you actually provided is very specific and detailed information, but information that is not actionable. This creates a false sense of security, thinking that a problem is been corrected, when in fact it’s just been moved.
The BIG PICTURE is the fire truck, police car, or ambulance getting to the proper building, and ideally the most appropriate entrance. Despite how big the building is, or how many people are housed in that building. If a building has four entrances, then first responders need to understand which one is most appropriate, not an untranslatable reference to specific location.
On the backend of that scenario: the internal mission that has begun inside of the facility. Whether it’s a school, commercial business, or even a hospital, someone likely needs to respond to that location, or at a bare minimum, they need to meet the public safety response team at one of those four doors while having full awareness of the location and severity of the incident.
This construct is actually not a new idea. You may have several telephones in your house, yet each phone doesn’t have its own unique telephone number in most cases. Based on this, the math becomes simple. In my building of 500 people, do I want to pay several dollars a month each in order to cover each person with information that is not actionable or relevant? Or do I want to focus on a solution that provides not just on-site notification of the event, but situational awareness. Floor plans, temperature sensors, the world of IOT, IP video cameras exist in each enterprise, yet we do nothing to capture, catalog, and utilize that precious information.
Many people are confused about what Next-Generation 911 services will provide. While location accuracy can certainly be improved upon, with richer fidelity of the information, the goal behind NG 911 is NOT to send heaps of data to the PSAP. It’s about providing an indicator to the PSAP call taker that additional data is available, and if they are interested in that information, here is a web URL or URI that will bring it to you.
This new concept, changes the game for the enterprise. Not only are they now responsible for generating a call or session to emergency services, they will be responsible for providing a list, or ‘menu’ if you will, of additional data that’s available if the call taker is interested.
Based on new legislation and our customers’ requirements for this new model and functionality, Avaya has entered into a resale agreement with the developers of a tried and true application called SENTRY™. For the past several years, SENTRY™ has been available to customers and partners through the Avaya DevConnect Select Product program, however now, SENTRY™ is now available directly from Avaya, and operates on the Avaya Aura CM, Session Manager, and the IP office architecture.
In addition to covering wired and wireless users within the enterprise, support for remote, nomadic, and home teleworkers, SENTRY™ functionality is also available securely to ANY MLTS system through a national umbrella of coverage, and a direct relationship with a Tier 1 NG 911 network carrier, as well as the ability to take E911 call routing from any system. For more information contact your local Avaya representative or distributor, and ask for demonstration of the SENTRY™ 911 solution for the enterprise. You’ll be amazed at the simplicity, functionality, and price.
Stop by and see the Avaya Smart City at NENA Booth #545, where we’ll demonstrate Avaya’s End to End Emergency Services Solution powered by Avaya, Beta 80, Engelbart Software, iNemsoft, and Secure 911.
The World According to Fletch . . . 